Common Syntactical Elements

The following elements are commonly used in the syntax statements for the Standard utilities. These definitions are provided as a guide to understanding the syntax notation.

Element	Meaning
channel	Any integer expression in the range 1 to 32767 that identifies the channel with which the utility is concerned. In some cases channel 0 is valid.
current_directory	The currently active directory.
fileid	Any string expression subject to the rules for file names. See Files for additional information. The fileid can be the file name only or include the complete path.
filelist	A list of the names of files to be accessed or acted upon by the utility. File names in a filelist must be separated by linefeed, $0A$, characters. The name of a filelist file saved by the _flist utility may NOT be used in a filelist to reference the file names it contains.
template	A PRO/5 string template.
type	PRO/5 basic file type: INDEXED, SERIAL, DIRECT, SORT, PROGRAM, MKEYED, or C-ISAM.
strvar	Any string variable or subscripted string variable.